For the question about lard: I always refrigerate my lard. I mainly use it for pie crust so it needs to be cold anyway. But lard does keep at cool room temperatures fairly well. When I was a kid on the farm we bought lard in 2 gallon cans and it sat in our storage room. In the summer it would become partially liquefied. We would put some in our 'lard bowl' and stick it in the refrigerator to get hard so that we could use it for pie crust, etc. anything that required cutting the lard into flour. All lard is not created equally. I have been buying lard in the grocery for years (Emge or Armour). It stays partially solid at room temperatures. Last year I purchased some recently rendered lard in an Amish grocery and it was lighter and appeared to liquefy at a higher temperature (I didn't do any rigorous testing). It was almost translucent. The Amish lard made great tasting pie crust but the dough was more difficult to work with. I don't know if the 'store' lard is partially hydrogenated to make it stay solid at room temp. I don't have a package near so that I can read the label.

• Reply